Sutter-Yuba County Biographies
This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
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E. WILLIAM QUENELL
One of the model farm properties in the Dobbins district is owned
and operated by E. William Quenell, who established his home in this section of
Yuba County thirty-four years ago, and whose success demonstrates the fact that
in the cultivation of the soil, as well as in business and professional lines,
efficiency and system are sure roads to prosperity. Mr. Quenell is a native of
Canada, born on October 15, 1849, in Huntington County, on the St. Lawrence
River, which marks the boundary line between the United States and Canada. His
parents, Joshua and Josephine (Christian) Quenell, were also natives of Canada,
being of French descent, and his paternal great-grandfather was born in the
province of Normandy. Mr. and Mrs. Joshua Quenell always resided in the
Dominion. The father reached the advanced age of eighty-four years, while the
mother passed away at the age of sixty-five.
E. William Quenell is fourth in order of birth in a family of ten
children. As a young man he came to the West, and from 1870 until 1880 worked
in the famous Comstock Mine near Virginia City, Nev. In the latter year he
arrived at Quincy, in the Sierra Valley of California. Subsequently he embarked
in the freighting business, which he successfully followed for ten years,
driving a six-mule team between Marysville, La Porte, Downieville and Sierra
City. He came to Yuba County in 1888, and in the following year bought a ranch
near Dobbins owned by Sam Harrison. By subsequent purchase he added three
forty-acre tracts to the original homestead of 160 acres, so that his holdings
now comprise 280 acres of fertile land, which is divided into fields of
convenient size by well-kept fences. He himself made most of the improvements
on the place, and his land is in excellent condition, showing the results of the
owner�s care and labor in steadily increasing its productiveness. He engages in
diversified farming, and his equipment is modern and up-to-date.
In Quincy, in 1884, Mr. Quenell was married to Miss Anna Robinson,
who was born at Crescent City, Indian Valley, April 9, 1868. Mr. and Mrs.
Quenell became the parents of three children. Ida married George Chambers, and
passed away in 1917, leaving four sons, Milton, Charles, John and George; the
youngest was but eighteen days old at the time of his mother�s death, and the
children are being reared by their grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Quenell. Leta is
the wife of Richard Royat, who is employed by the Pacific Gas & Electric Company
at Colgate; and they have had four children: Lawrence, Leonard, Adelle
(deceased), and Ellis. William J. is employed as a cabinet maker in San
Francisco, and is attending a school of mechanical dentistry in San Francisco.
Mr. Quenell received his citizenship papers at Quincy, Cal., and
exercises his right of franchise in support of the men and measures of the
Democratic party. He is active in its behalf, and has served on every election
board at Dobbins since 1896. He has done all in his power to promote the
educational advancement of his district, and is now serving for the second term
as school director at Indiana Ranch, an office which he also filled for three
terms about twenty years ago. He is loyal to the interests of his adopted
country, and the success which he enjoys is the natural result of untiring
labor, supplemented by business sagacity and absolute integrity.
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 508